John school

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John school is a form of educational intervention aimed at clients of prostitutes, who are colloquially known as 'johns' in North America. Societal norms deemed the behavior of clients and their engagement in sex work as atypical so John Schools worked to address this. John schools originated in San Francisco due to community frustrations about the great occurrence of street prostitution in their areas and the lack of effective policies to combat the sex industry. Schools similar to the San Francisco one were established throughout the country and in multiple nations. John schools are usually a diversion program for people - almost exclusively men - arrested for soliciting the services of a prostitute, or another related offense. This often acts as an alternative to criminal prosecutions. However, in some jurisdictions, courts may sentence men to attend a john school program as a condition of probation. John schools often last a few months and usually have weekly sessions. Their focus is often on the experiences and harms of prostitution, such as the violence associated with prostitution, the sexually transmitted disease risks of prostitution, and the effects of prostitution on families and communities. [1] [2] Whether the John school is a diversion program or a sentencing condition, the client will often pay a fee to enroll. The fee frequently covers the cost of the program and sometimes contributes to programs to aid prostitutes, or community projects within red light districts. Generally speaking, there is no definitive answer as to if John schools have been able to reduce the number of clients engaging in the sex industry.

Contents

History

Origin

Before the origin of John schools, officials were mainly concerned with finding and arresting the sex workers themselves. [3] This strategy was inefficient in diminishing the occurrence of prostitution as when workers would get arrested, they would often have to pay a fine which would force them to turn to prostitution to pay for it. Also, a conviction would appear on their record which would make it difficult to find work outside of the sex trade, forcing them to resort back to it for a living. [4] Realizing that their practices weren’t working, officials decided to focus on targeting the buyers of sex work. By decreasing the demand of the sex trade, sex workers would be left with no business and forced to turn to something else for work. One of the steps in this new plan was the creation of John schools. By educating buyers about the dangers and harms of prostitution, they would turn away from engaging in the trade. Officials believed these buyers, also known as Johns, would be very receptive to the education as they were normal people and not the typical criminal. [5]

An additional cause for the creation of John schools was community concerns about the influx and visibility of street prostitution in their areas. The occurrence of the sex trade led to increased drugs and violence, more traffic and trash, such as used condoms, needles, and alcoholic bottles, littering the streets. Communities complained that prostitution was harming the business of local companies and the quality of life of residents of the area. [6] With families making up a large proportion of residents in these areas, one of the biggest concerns heard was the fact that they had to raise their children around so much crime and violence. [7] With sights of pimps beating prostitutes and people engaging in oral sex out in plain sight during all hours of the day, parents urged the police to clean up the streets. In response, police increased the number of officers in these communities and prohibited offenders of sex-related crimes from being presented in prostitution-filled areas. [6] These actions did little to improve these areas so John schools were created as an alternative.

First Offender Prostitution Program (FOPP)

The first comprehensive John school program was started in San Francisco in 1995 by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and Norma Hotaling and was known as the First Offender Prostitution Program. [8] The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office collaborated with the San Francisco police department and the non-profit, Standing Against Global Exploitation in the creation of the FOPP. [6] These organizations shared the beliefs that the practices of the sex trade were harmful to society and that the policies put in place to address and fight the crime of prostitution weren’t effective.

The First Offender Prostitution Program featured a curriculum that was divided into six sections: “Prostitution Law and Street Facts, Health Education, Effect of Prostitution on Prostitutes, Dynamics of Pimping, Recruiting, and Trafficking, Effect of Prostitution on the Community and Sexual Addiction”. [9] The program met once a week for sessions for up to ten sessions. Participants of FOPP were required to pay a fee to enroll which partially went to the running of the school and partially went to nearby programs that assisted survivors of sex work.

Prevalence

John schools have been established across the United States, in Canada, South Korea and in the United Kingdom. More than 15 John schools have emerged in the United Kingdom since the first British john school in Leeds which was led by Julie Bindel and opened in 1998. [10] As the term 'john' is rarely used in the United Kingdom, John schools are referred to by several different names including kerb-crawling rehabilitation schemes or kerb-crawling awareness schemes. [11] The proceeds from a john school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada finance an eight-week life skills-based course for prostitutes run through Streetlight Support Services. [12]

In the US, as of 2012 around 58 John Schools had been established in cities dealing with problems of high rates of prostitution. The earliest cities to have followed the footsteps of San Francisco were Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, Rochester, and West Palm Beach. [9] These newly established schools modeled their curriculum after the First Offender Prostitution Program of San Francisco, simplifying altering parts to fit their specific locations such as the specific laws and policies taught to participants. [4]

John schools all had the same objective of fighting prostitution by educating buyers but their layouts slightly differed from each other. Some schools acted as diversion programs, dismissing the criminal charges of participants upon completion while others were assigned to arrested buyers as part of their sentencing. Programs also varied in the number of sessions required for completion and how often sessions were as some schools met weekly or monthly or bi-monthly. Fee requirements for schools ranged from about $0 to $1,500. [9] Some schools had larger fees in order to allocate a portion of the money to programs that helped sex workers get out of the trade while others just collected enough money in fees to simply run their program.

Curriculum

First time male offenders who volunteer for the program are required to attend an eight-hour seminar on the negative consequences of prostitution of all types on neighborhoods, the Criminal Justice System, and the prostitutes themselves, and face the possibility of a jail sentence if they refuse. In the first 12 years of the still ongoing program, now called the First Offender Prostitution Program, the recidivism rate amongst offenders was reduced from 8% to less than 5%. Between 1981 and 2007, 48 john schools had opened in the United States. [13]

Negative societal views on prostitution labeled those engaged in the trade as “problematic behaviour”. [4] The purchasing of sexual services was seen as abnormal as typically love and sex went hand in hand. The experience of mental disorders was used by society as an explanation for the unusual behaviors of buyers of sex work. John schools often brought in psychologists to discuss mental health and former sex addicts to share their struggles and journeys with participants. [6]

One of the objectives of John schools was to clean up the streets, mainly focusing on reducing the occurrence of visible acts of sex work. Schools had sessions on the negative impact street prostitution had on communities and their members. There was little attention given to more private forms of sex work, such as brothels, escorts, pornography, and massage parlors. [6] These practices took place in hidden areas that were out of sight of the public making them not a concern for the community.

John schools wanted to educate buyers of the realities of the sex trade and get rid of their ignorance and denial of the harms. One lesson taught was that sex workers were victims as they did not choose this work but instead were being forced into it. Former sex workers were invited to sessions to speak to participants about their negative experiences in the industry. Buyers were convinced to believe that by purchasing sex, they were contributing to the “abusive and exploitative cycle that sex workers endure”. [6] In sessions, schools depicted pimps as violent criminals that often beat up and robbed buyers. Sex workers were described as dangerous and deceitful as they didn’t actually care or have feelings for their clients. John schools claimed that sex workers only fake their affection and likeness for clients in order to get their money.

Evaluations of John Schools

A 2009 audit of the first john school in San Francisco conducted by the City's budget analysis, faults the program with ill-defined goals and no way to determine its effectiveness. Despite being touted as a national model that comes at no cost to taxpayers, the audit said the program didn't cover its expenses in each of the last five years, leading to a $270,000 shortfall. [14]

Some critics question how John school curricula socially construct sex work, [15] while others do note the influence of contradictory perspectives of both sex work advocates and critics. [16] For example, an academic policy evaluation of the First Offender Prostitution Program in San Francisco found that the program "both replicates and contests competing and often contradictory gender ideologies and patterns of power. Specifically, the program’s enrollment practices and most of its content imply that men who purchase sexual services are rational sexual agents, while women who sell these services are (mainly) victims. ... The program thus illustrates the contested and contradictory ideological dynamics of gender-sensitive institutional reforms." [17]

There is no clear evidence whether the establishment of John school programs have lead to a decline in re-arrest rates of offenders of prostitution-related crimes. In an analysis of the First Offender Prostitution Program, it was found that shortly after the program was introduced re-arrest rates declined in San Francisco but so did rate in the entirety of California. Seven years after the program was implemented, re-arrest rates seemed to increase in San Francisco while rates in the rest of the state decreased. [5] Other studies conducted have found that John schools have reduced rates in areas implemented. Experts have labeled these results as inconclusive of the effectiveness of schools as first-offenders could’ve just relocated to other areas to engage in prostitution or began to use more private forms of sex work. [9]

Related Research Articles

Sex worker Person who works in the sex industry

A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.

Sex work Offer of sexual services in exchange for money or other types of exchange

Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to voluntary sexual transactions; thus the term does not refer to human trafficking and other coerced or nonconsensual sexual transactions such as child prostitution. The transaction must take place between consenting adults who are of the legal age and mental capacity to consent and must take place without any methods of coercion, other than payment. The term emphasizes the labor and economic implications of this type of work. Furthermore, some prefer the use of the term because it seemingly grants more agency to the sellers of these services.

Street prostitution Soliciting prostitution from a public place

Street prostitution is a form of sex work in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, etc. The street prostitute is often dressed in a provocative manner. The sex act may be performed in the customer's car, in a nearby secluded street location, or at the prostitute's residence or in a rented motel room.

Male prostitution Act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment

Male prostitution is the act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment. It is a form of sex work. Although clients can be of any gender, the vast majority are older males looking to fulfill their sexual needs. Compared to female prostitutes, male prostitutes have been far less studied by researchers. Even so, male prostitution has an extensive history including regulation through homosexuality, conceptual developments on sexuality, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic impact. In the last century, male sex work has seen various advancements, popularizing new sexual acts, methods of exchange, and carving out a spot in cinema. Today, there is a focus on improving the work conditions, treatment, and mental health of male sex workers.

COYOTE is an American sex workers' rights organization. Its name is a backronym for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, a reflection of the fact that sex work tends to be stigmatized primarily because of society-imposed standards of ethics. COYOTE's goals include the decriminalization of prostitution, pimping and pandering, as well as the elimination of social stigma concerning sex work as an occupation.

Prostitution in China Overview of Prostitution in Mainland China

After taking power in 1949, the Communist Party of China embarked upon a series of campaigns with the aim of eradicating prostitution from mainland China by the early 1960s. Since the loosening of government controls over society in the early 1980s, prostitution in mainland China not only has become more visible, but can now be found throughout both urban and rural areas. In spite of government efforts, prostitution has now developed to the extent that it comprises an industry, one that involves a great number of people and produces a considerable economic output. Prostitution has also become associated with a number of problems, including organized crime, government corruption, hypocrisy, and sexually transmitted diseases. For example, a Communist Party official who was a major provincial campaigner against corruption was removed from his post and expelled from the party after he was caught in a hotel room with a prostitute.

Prostitution is illegal in the vast majority of the United States as a result of state laws rather than federal laws. It is, however, legal in some rural counties within the state of Nevada. Prostitution nevertheless occurs elsewhere in the country.

Prostitution Engaging in sexual relations in exchange for payment

Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring diseases. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, or more inclusively, a sex worker.

Prostitution in Israel is legal, but the purchase of sex and organised prostitution in the form of brothels and pimping are prohibited. Legislation passed in the Knesset on 31 December 2018 that criminalises the "clients" of prostitutes came into force in May 2020, and was regulated since July 2020 under the Israeli Abolition of Prostitution Consumption Law, where fines will be cast for consumption of prostitution services from an adult. This legislation makes Israel the tenth country to adopt the "Nordic model". The Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services estimates there to be 14,000 prostitutes in the country.

Prostitution in Pakistan

Prostitution in Pakistan is a taboo culture of sex-trade that exists as an open secret but illegal. Prostitution is largely based in organisational setups like brothels or furthered by individual call girls.

Violence against prostitutes occurs worldwide, both through physical and psychological forms. The victims are predominantly women. In extreme cases, violent acts have led to their murder while in their workplace.

Feminist views on prostitution Standpoints either critical or supportive of prostitution and sex work

There exists a diversity of feminist views on prostitution. Many of these positions can be loosely arranged into an overarching standpoint that is generally either critical or supportive of prostitution and sex work. The discourse surrounding prostitution is often discussed assuming sex workers are women, but those in the field of sex work and prostitution are not always women.

Melissa Farley is an American clinical psychologist, researcher and feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution activist. Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution, trafficking and sexual violence. She is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based organization, Prostitution Research and Education.

Prostitution law Legality of prostitution

Prostitution law varies widely from country to country, and between jurisdictions within a country. At one extreme, prostitution or sex work is legal in some places and regarded as a profession, while at the other extreme, it is a crime punishable by death in some other places.

Decriminalization of sex work

The decriminalization of sex work is the removal of criminal penalties for sex work. Sex work, the consensual provision of sexual services for money or goods, is criminalized in most countries. Decriminalization is distinct from legalization.

Human trafficking in Nevada

Human trafficking in Nevada is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of Nevada, and it is widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery. It includes "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."

Norma Hotaling was an American women's-rights and anti-sex trafficking activist. Hotaling was a former prostitute and heroin addict who drew from her personal experiences to create new methods for getting women and men out of prostitution and into what she saw as healthier lifestyles. She founded the San Francisco non-profit SAGE in 1992. She championed holistic methods of "treatment" for former sex workers, and her methods because popular worldwide. As part of her own rehabilitation, Hotaling earned a bachelor's degree in health education from San Francisco State University. In San Francisco, she and SAGE became well known for focusing on men's roles in prostitution by establishing the First Offender Prostitution Program or "John" school, to combat and lessen the demand for prostitutes by males. In April 2008, Hotaling was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and died eight months later. SAGE continued to operate until 2014.

Prostitution in California is illegal.

Clients of prostitutes or sex workers are sometimes known as johns or tricks in North America and punters in the British Isles. In common parlance among prostitutes as well as with others, the act of negotiating and then engaging with a client is referred to as turning a trick. Female clients are sometimes called janes, although the vast majority of prostitution clients are male in almost all countries.

There are about 220,000 women currently incarcerated in America. Over 30% of these women are convicted prostitutes. Much of the research on the sex industry in prisons focuses on the experiences of women because the number of jailed female sex workers greatly outnumbers men. Prominent issues that the criminal justice system and women who are incarcerated on prostitution charges currently face include the sexually transmitted infections and diseases epidemic, the sex-work-prison cycle, and the prison-to-sex-trafficking pipeline. Intervention and diversion programs, both within prisons and in traditional and specialty courts aim to address these issues, decrease recidivism, and provide these women with resources to assist them in exiting the sex trade. There are a variety of community-based organizations which seek to help resolve these concerns.

References

  1. ↑ "John School Helps Break the Cycle of Prostitution" Archived 2017-02-04 at the Wayback Machine by Sharon Boddy, Peace and Environment News, November 1998.
  2. ↑ Aina Hunter (May 10, 2005). "School for Johns". Village Voice . Archived from the original on 2007-09-18.
  3. ↑ Majic, Samantha (January 2014). "Teaching Equality? "John Schools," Gender, and Institutional Reform". Polity. 46 (1): 5–30. doi:10.1057/pol.2013.37. ISSN   0032-3497. S2CID   155542108.
  4. 1 2 3 BRUNSCHOT, ERIN GIBBS VAN (2008-07-14). "Community Policing and "John Schools"*". Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie. 40 (2): 215–232. doi:10.1111/j.1755-618x.2003.tb00244.x. ISSN   1755-6171.
  5. 1 2 Lovell, R., & Jordan, A. (2012, July). Do John Schools Really Decrease Recidivism?
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gurd, Amy; O’Brien, Erin (2013-06-01). "Californian 'John Schools' and the Social Construction of Prostitution". Sexuality Research and Social Policy. 10 (2): 149–158. doi:10.1007/s13178-013-0117-6. ISSN   1553-6610. S2CID   143199235.
  7. ↑ Bernstein, Elizabeth (2001-09-01). "The Meaning of the Purchase: Desire, Demand and the Commerce of Sex". Ethnography. 2 (3): 389–420. doi:10.1177/14661380122230975. ISSN   1466-1381. S2CID   144352002.
  8. ↑ May, Meredith (20 December 2008). "Norma Hotaling dies - fought prostitution SAN FRANCISCO Former homeless prostitute's programs have been lauded, imitated around the country". SFGate. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Shively, M., Kliorys, K., Wheeler, K., & Hunt, D. (2012, June 15). An Overview of John Schools in the United States.
  10. ↑ "Street fighters". London: The Guardian, August 17, 1999. August 17, 1999. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
  11. ↑ "Re-educating the kerb-crawler". Northumbria Centre for Offenders and Offending Blog. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
  12. ↑ Paul Nathanson; Katherine K. Young (2006). Legalizing Misandry: From Public Shame to Systemic Discrimination Against Men. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 166. ISBN   077355999X.
  13. ↑ "Final Report on the Evaluation of the First Offender Prostitution Program, written by Michael Shiveley et al" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 2012-09-13.
  14. ↑ "Audit faults S.F. D.A.'s prostitution program". sfgate.com. 20 September 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  15. ↑ Gurd, A., & O’Brien, E. (2013). Californian ‘John schools’ and the social construction of prostitution. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 10(2), 149-158.
  16. ↑ Cook, I. R. (2015). A vengeful education? Urban revanchism, sex work and the penal politics of John Schools. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 97(1), 17-30.
  17. ↑ Majic, Samantha (2014). "Teaching Equality? "John Schools," Gender, and Institutional Reform". Polity. 46: 5–30. doi:10.1057/pol.2013.37. S2CID   155542108.
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